First of two full weekends of galas at the end of the first cycle of the season completed.
Highlights from this weekend.
1. Staying in the premier division for the national arena league, when you only have around 80 swimmers to choose from having a full team is vital, we didn’t in any round with at least a fifth of the first team missing each round, this makes staying up and performing as well as we did against much larger clubs even more impressive.
2. A special mention to the 15 year old boys relay team of Bradley Evans, Matt Fearn, Daniel Mcferran and Finlay Moss who won all six of their relays during the league competition.
3. A great turn out at County Long Course Champs on Sunday. After 4 events we had a 99.9% PB rate, this naturally lowered during the day as swimming back to back events is tough especially on youth and senior swimmers but we still ended the day in the 60%’s. Which is an amazing effort for a none focus meet where swimmers had the choice of which kit to race in.
4. Great to see the loyalty displayed by all of our swimmers including the Derventio excel swimmers over the weekend. It was noticeable that a lot of swimmers had moved club, but ours have stayed true to us despite approaches being made. Loyalty like this can not be brought with offers of free membership etc and these swimmers prove that in this quick fix era there are still some class acts about.
5. The skills and knowledge on display, along with willingness to learn and develop from the swimmers. These athletes are up before school, college or even work to train, then after a full day go training again whilst still managing their time to get home work etc done. Swimming is a tough sport and it is no wonder employers look for swimmers. Their dedication is second to none. A lot of the older swimmers were developing meet management skills, racing back to back, managing their time and bodies, to ensure they could perform time and time again. The noticeable thing from all the swims, even the very tired ones towards the end of the day was that the skill levels didn’t drop, nor did the tactical awareness.
6. A personal one, pride does come before a fall, but even so I have to say that I am proud to of helped developed some amazing people, not just athletes but people, their behaviour and actions can be a direct reflection of the leadership they are given and hopefully it is, because I am truly proud of all of them (frustrated occasionally yes) the behaviour, team spirit, togetherness and desire to improve themselves is incredible. Long may it continue.
